1% Well-Read: The Optimist's Daughter

In my attempt to finish the 2008-09 1% Well-Read Challenge, I made a desperate run to our small local library to see what they might have on the shelves. Normally I rely on inter-library loans through our extended regional system to find specific titles, but with a week or so left in the challenge, I had run out of time for that option. It was a remarkably successful trip, and one that netted me Rabbit Redux, two other titles that shall be discussed later, and an American Library volume of Eudora Welty's complete novels. Of all of Ms. Welty's works, The Optimist's Daughter was the one chosen for the 1% Well-Read Challenge source list (or at least one of them).

Although I enjoyed The Optimist's Daughter, it struck me as an odd choice. It felt much more like a novella, and was the only work I read that felt like something that would have been assigned for an AP English course in high school. I don't mean to be derogatory; East of Eden, a high school assignment many years ago, remains one of my favorite novels. However, The Optimist's Daughter was that sort of fast-paced, clear-eyed observation of society that is so favored in high-school curricula. The characterizations and dialogue, however, were very witty. I understand that Ms. Welty was an acute observer of her milieu, and her perception shows.

One of the things that made this work such an interesting read was that the culture and setting of the main characters, rather than the characters themselves, filled out the story and provided the orientation for the reader. In my read, each character was actually rather one-dimensional, but it was the ambiguity of their interactions and positions in society that gave complexity and depth to the story. It was hard to feel close to Laurel, the protagonist, but it was easy to become engaged in her actions and choices as she navigated her father's death, the social rituals of her home-town, and interactions with her father's wholly inappropriate second wife.

I liked Ms. Welty's style and prose, and would probably enjoy other works even more. She wrote female characters well, even if there was very little mercy at times. I don't think I will carry the story with me for any great length of time, but in my mind, it would make a very acceptable substitute for many standard titles in lit intro classes.

I had not realized that Ms. Welty enjoyed such a long life, and was alive until 2001. Strange that this fact should alter my perception of her, and in my mind render her less bounded by 2oth Century literature, but it does. How little know about American writers; as a reader I read for pleasure, but in doing so, sometimes I miss important bits of context.